Risk-Takers Thrive Thanks To Micron Technology's CEO

Mark Durcan joined Micron Technology fresh out of college in 1984. In his nearly 30 years with the semiconductor company, he has earned a steady string of promotions, and became Micron's chief executive in early 2012.

"I spent a lot of my early career in technology and technology development," Durcan said. "The key to my success in that part of my career was to always be encouraging of risk-takers in the organization."

"It's important to assure people that it's OK to dream," said Durcan, 52. "You always want to set up alternate paths and then monitor each path. At the same time, you need to give seeds time to grow."

This approach has worked well for Durcan. As Micron Technology's (MU) chief technical officer in the 1990s, his team faced an impending manufacturing bottleneck "that could have significant ramifications for us," he says. An employee suggested a new technique, involving patterning technology, to build a template to improve results. Durcan nurtured the idea and ultimately implemented it.

Seeking A Balance

Boise, Idaho-based Micron has about 30,000 employees around the world. To encourage prudent risk-taking, Durcan continues to push people to think creatively.

That's especially important now. Micron is at what Durcan calls "an inflection point." The 35-year-old company seeks to balance its longstanding devotion to semiconductor manufacturing with its plans to develop a broader range of differentiated technology solutions.

"We need to maintain our culture — our rich legacy of lean, focused manufacturing — and also develop new skills and organizational strengths in different areas," Durcan said. "Our culture also needs to have a big tent for new ideas."

With extensive global operations, Micron houses its diverse workforce in close proximity to its corporate customers. This enables the company to stay attuned to its users' needs and insights.

"One technique we're using more and more is setting up customer application labs where we create technical interaction," Durcan said. "This helps us collaborate more with customers by sharing local technical resources."

Vetting Job Candidates

To lay the groundwork for effective risk-taking among his employees, Durcan seeks to attract a top team. He wants innovative thinkers who are also resilient.

In job interviews, he likes to probe to find out how candidates navigated tricky challenges. For example, he might ask: "Tell me about an instance when you faced a fork in the road with your team, where some people wanted to go one way and others wanted to go another way. How did you handle that?"

"I'm looking for people who can learn from their experience," he said. "I want to hear what they would've done differently. Humility is a key to leadership."

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